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Are you tired of Christmas already? No? Well ,good – because we’re now in peak festive fodder season.

Everyone seems to have a vegan Christmas offering at the moment (yay) which means it’s now impossible not to each out every other day (nay for you know, money and health).

But there’s more going on in the plant-based world aside from novelty pizzas and butter-free mince pie drops.

This week in vegan news:

Veganuary calls on MPs to give veganism a go

(Picture: Veganuary)

With just under a month to go, Veganuary predicts that around 300,000 people are going to pledge to go animal product free in Jan.

But it’s just us mere plebs they want to give plant life a go – they want the powers that be to ditch the dairy.

The charity says that the government has done little to heed the warnings from the scientific community about reducing co2 emissions by cutting meat and dairy consumption. As such, activists descended on Westminster earlier this week to try to persuade MPs to sign up.

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‘Trying vegan for January by switching to tasty plant-based alternatives in the cafeterias of Parliament would be a simple step to take for our leaders to lead by example, and show they’re serious about tackling climate change,’ said Rich Hardy, Head of Campaigns at Veganuary.

You might not have dreamt of a cheeky Boots meal deal when you were an omni but the pharmacy chain has absolutely nailed their vegan options (they even have Livia’s Kitchen and Hippeas as pudding options!).

And they’ve just announced that they’re introducing two more sarnie options to their menu: vegan BTL and all day breakfast.

Yep, no more falafel or roasted carrots between two slices of dried up bread. We’re talking meat alternatives. Vegan eggs. Possibly even slices of meat-free bangers.

Leeds Rhinos player Anthony Mullally has just opened up a vegan cafe close to the Headingley Stadium.

The Vital Cafe is a West Indian inspired gaff (as the name might suggest) which is open seven days a week and offers an all-you-can-eat buffet on Mondays after 6pm.

Anthony’s business partners are both qualified nutritionists, so you know that those plant macros will be on point.

He turned vegan last year, saying that he felt like a hypocrite eating a vegetarian diet.

‘People expect rugby players to be eating steak every day, but a lot of our squad are now vegetarian because we have started the conversation about everyone’s personal taste,’ he’s said.

And to convince the punters, Vital Cafe is offering a 10% discount to Leeds Rhino club members.

So next time you hear anything about veganism not offering enough muscle-building protein…

Greggs is launching a vegan sausage roll

(Picture: Bloomberg)

A leaked email (classic) got us all hot and flusters this week after it revealed that Greggs was launching a vegan sausage roll in the new year.

The missive apparently said: ‘we’re really excited about the launch of the vegan sausage roll and we know you and our customers will be too.

If true, the news comes as PETA’s petition to get the pasty giant to release a cruelty-free version of the snack collected over 20,000 signatures.

No one actually knows if it’s true or not yet. It could just be one big PR move by Greggs..but it does seem likely that they are planning to release something like this. After all, everyone’s doing it aren’t they?

The campaign was inspired by research commissioned by Zizzi which uncovered that a massive two-thirds of Brits are forced into changing their dietary requirements when eating out, with veganism viewed as the diet most difficult to cater for.

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Dominika Piasecka from The Vegan Society says: ‘2018 has been the year that veganism has truly gone mainstream, reflected by the fact that a major high street brand has chosen to put a vegan Father Christmas front and centre in its advertising campaign.

‘It also celebrates the fact that there is now so much more choice for vegans when it comes to dining out and that diners are no longer left with a tasteless or bland plate of food.’